No matter how hard we clean, dust always comes back. Hands down, the worst place to let it accumulate is your bedroom. Breathing in dust mites and allergens for eight straight hours a night? Luckily, there are ways to reduce dust in your bedroom and remove it more effectively. Fighting dust is a battle that you can win! Here are eight ways to keep dust out of your bedroom: If you’re only going to do one thing to reduce dust in your bedroom, do this. Wash your pillows and bed linens once a week. Tip: To completely eradicate dust mites, wash your sheets at 130 degrees or higher. The fewer surfaces you have in your bedroom, the fewer places dust has a chance to collect. Go minimalist with your bedroom décor by clearing away knickknacks, decorations and furniture that aren’t serving a clear purpose. No matter how seriously you take step number two, you can’t remove your floor, but dust will accumulate there. Be diligent about keeping your clothes off of the floor and vacuum regularly.
If you have rugs, make a habit of taking them outside and beating them with a broom or an old tennis racket once a month. Dusting with a dry microfiber cloth is a great start, but if you really want to remove dust from all surfaces, dampen the cloth. Surface-clean your bedroom once a week with the damp cloth, including all wood or metal furniture. Tip: Don’t forget about windowsills! Take a quick survey of the furniture in your bedroom. Is any of it upholstered? If it is, consider removing it or swapping it out with another piece of furniture in your home. Dust mites love heavy fabric and upholstery. It doesn’t matter if your bedroom closet is full of clothes, bedding or towels – they all collect dust. Box or bag items and place them on shelves that are easy to reach and easy to clean. We recommend clear plastic containers for items like seasonal clothing, because they lock out dust and can be wiped down in a matter of minutes. Not only do shoes track in dirt from outside, they also track in allergens – in other words, dust.
Create a household shoe policy to keep shoes out of the bedroom. Tip: Store them on a shoe rack or in baskets next to your front door, instead. Keep your pet’s toys, bedding and other belongings in a separate area of your home to avoid pet dander from coming into contact with your bed. If you must have your pet sleep in the same room as you, you can reduce pet dander by routinely washing your pet’s bed.Dust mites are tiny, microscopic bugs, that are commonly found in human habitats, such as your house, couch, bed or carpet. They are able thrive in our living environment, because they live off of our dead skin cells, and the dander from our pets. Regardless of how clean we try to keep our homes, we are still vulnerable to dust mites. Cleaning alone will not counteract the problem due to the fact that the average human gives off 5-10 grams of dead skin cells each week, about 3lbs per year. Despite the most regimented of cleaning schedules, the dust mites in your home will have plenty to sustain.
The average house dust mite reproduces at an astonishingly rapid rate. The effects of this plethora of dust mites in our homes can have a significant role in causing health problems. Dust mites excrete an average of 20 droppings of waste each day. Many people are highly allergic to these droppings, and scientists are beginning to correlate dust mites to asthma, as well as other allergic symptoms [1]. How Am I Exposed to Dust Mites? Dust mites thrive off of dead skin. Dust mites live in our sheets, clothing, stuffed animals, carpet, upholstery, towels and furniture. While your dryer will most likely kill the dust mites (from clothing, sheets and towels), many things like furniture and carpet are more difficult to control for mites and their excrement. Their droppings are composed of protein compounds. When we breathe in these protein substances, or when they come into contact with our skin, our body tries to protect us by producing antibodies. In turn, our antibodies release histamine which is a chemical that causes the typical swelling and red color associated with allergies.
Dust Mites: Symptoms of Exposure Dust mites can pose a serious threat to our health as an allergen, and have been proven to trigger asthma, especially in children and the elderly. Clinical trials conducted by Cytos Biotechnology [2], showed a direct correlation between dust mites in your home and triggered allergies. Symptoms of dust-mite triggered allergies include itchiness, infected/inflamed eczema, watering eyes, runny nose, clogged lungs, hay fever, watery eyes, coughing, sneezing, and even breathing problems. Very sensitive people even report getting red, itchy bumps on their skin after lying on a dust-mite infested rug or bed. It’s easy to see why eliminating dust mites from your home could seriously improve your overall health. Shocking Facts About Dust Mites The average bed is home to anywhere from 100,000 to 10 million dust mites. Pets with large amounts of fur can greatly increase the number of dust mites in your home. We inhale their droppings from our pillows as we sleep, lay on carpet, or breathe in airborne dust particles.
Common household dust is often heavily composed of, and contaminated with the fecal pellets and cast skins of dust mites. Estimates state that 80% of the material you can see floating in a sunbeam is actually human skin flakes (dust-mite food!) Studies show that an estimated 50-80% of asthmatics are affected by dust mites [3]. Other allergic reactions to dust mites may even include headaches, fatigue and depression. Dust mites are considered arachnids, which is the same class that includes spiders, ticks, and even scorpions! Tips For Eliminating Dust Mites In Your Home Although dust mites are microscopic, there are some steps we can take to fight them. Here are several methods that you can use to minimize dust mites, as well as their cast skins and fecal droppings, from your home: Get rid of their food sources. Remove dust from your home. Don’t sweep or “dust” floors or hard surfaces. This only serves to circulate the dust throughout the house, giving you more chance to inhale them.
Instead, use damp cloths that will attract and hold the dust you’re collecting. Vacuum up dust instead of sweeping. Vacuum floors, furniture, carpet and upholstery with a machine that uses HEPA filter technology. It will capture the mites and their eggs. It might be a good idea to invest in a good quality air purification system that employs a HEPA filter and UV and negative ion technologies for best results when cleaning your air. To minimize pet dander, run a wet cloth over pet fur each day, especially after animals come in from outdoors. Another good way to contain loose hair is to brush fur in both directions and then follow with a damp cloth. Keep your home humidity levels low. Use a dehumidifier to keep your air below 50% humidity because dust mites don’t like dry air. I suggest that you run a dehumidifier about 2 to 3 times per week in high humidity regions. Wash bedding weekly and use water at about 130° Fahrenheit. Very hot water kills the dust mites.
Use natural laundry detergent and add essential oils to help kill any living mites left behind. Dry your bedding on high heat as well. Make an investment and purchase hypoallergenic bedding and furniture. You should replace your pillows, and even bedding, yearly. There are also mattress and pillow coverings that are dust mite-free and organic. Some suggest enclosing the mattress top and sides with a dust mite impervious cover. If you have cloth curtains, clean them regularly with the vacuum and a damp cloth. Light-weight materials hold fewer mites than heavier materials. Make sure to hang clothes up in a well-ventilated closet or wardrobe. If your closet or wardrobe can’t be ventilated, purchase a non-chemical moisture remover. Carpet can be replaced with non-toxic wool or non-toxic hardwood or cork flooring. If you use carpet, be sure to use all-natural carpet cleaning products. Get rid of the clutter! Clutter collects dust, and by now you know that it also collects dust mites.